Features archive

August 2026

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179 articles

August 31
- "Frenzee is an outburst of adrenaline." Meet the Greek-Australian siblings running on red wine, darts and very high acid reflux
- “The label staff just assume the artists get rich. I told a girl in the office what we earned. Her jaw hit the floor”: Steve Hogarth recalls Marillion’s bad old days before crowdfunding
- "It breaks my heart that Miss Murder will always represent us." AFI's Davey Havok on selling out, his surprise love for glam metal and why the band weren't part of 2000s emo
- Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: August 31, 2026
- The 'terrible' metal albums (that aren't nearly as bad as people make out)
- “Phil Collins played the drums then did his backing vocals. I said, ‘I don’t suppose you’ve ever thought of going solo?’”: Trevor Horn’s fun adventures with Yes, Genesis and Mike Oldfield, and sneaking prog into the pop charts
August 30
- “Our fans agree with Yngwie Malmsteen – more is more!”: What Leprous learned when they wrote a song with their audience
- "It's doom, but with the added vibe of a winter burial on the outskirts of a desolate industrial town." Nintendocore, unblack metal and some of the weirdest metal subgenres you never knew existed
- "We’re the Arctic Monkeys trying to play Slayer." Meet Ronker, the Belgians who ditched indie for thumping hardcore
- The strange story of Brian May, Eddie Van Halen, a kids’ TV theme and the most unlikely collaboration of the 1980s: “It was like going down a really challenging ski run. I was very much conscious of his talent and his incredible aura”
- “We’d be compared to bands like Queen, but that was written before I ever heard a Queen record.” Dennis DeYoung reveals the surprising stories behind 10 iconic Styx songs
- “It was rough. There was no money. I was on the balls of my ass”: Aerosmith were one of the biggest American rock bands of the 1970s. And then it went to hell
- “Nobody was more surprised than I was when we started doing it, and today it’s my main activity”: Perfect but unplanned timing sent the Alan Parsons Project touring galaxies far, far away with I Robot
- How Bon Scott's devilish grin and gallons of fake blood secured the AC/DC legend. "Artists who don't know who they are are the ones who give you trouble. AC/DC never had that problem"
August 29
- "This girl and I have been through the fire." Aged 15, Mikaela Mayer was playing alongside Nita Strauss in an all-girl metal band touring America with Avenged Sevenfold and My Chemical Romance. Tonight she's fighting for three world boxing titles
- "David Bowie may have saved my life." How a head-hunting phone call from David Bowie helped one of alternative rock's most influential musicians pull back from the abyss during his darkest hours
- “Their song titles left them open to detractors. Like all true pioneers, their hats were shot through with arrows”: The progressive power of Cocteau Twins’ Treasure
- “There were certain guidelines, and that was to stay away from long hair and guitar solos”: How Led Zeppelin, The Doors and Hendrix inspired a rule-breaking post-punk band to write one of rock’s greatest anthems
- The story behind Oasis' finest hour, the generation-defining Definitely Maybe. “We were a punk band with Beatles melodies. We had no effects, barely any equipment, just loads of attitude, 12 cans of Red Stripe and ambition."
- Metal Hammer's tracks of the week: August 28 2026
- The inside story behind the celebrations of Syd Barrett's 80th birthday. "Syd emerged from the womb fully formed. There was no lead-in period - it was bang!"
- "My mind got the better of me after being a half-mile closer to the centre of the earth. An epic rock 'n' roll death – what a way to go." What happened when Queens of the Stone Age played a tiny show deep inside a German salt mine
- In 1990 Epic Records released nine rock albums on the same day: The stunt was doomed, but a lost classic was born
- “I don’t think he needs to hear what I think about his music”: When Jinjer’s Tatiana Shmailyuk saw Opeth’s Mikael Mikael Åkerfeldt, she was too scared to talk to him
August 28
- Every song on Pearl Jam's Ten ranked from worst to best
- “I wound up on the bill with them in Malaysia, where I got escorted offstage by police with automatic weapons”: Despite the drama, Joe Satriani still loves Jethro Tull
- How Ozzy Osbourne conquered personal demons and bitter contract wars to eclipse Black Sabbath. "Part of me wanted to say to them, you fired me, and now I don’t need you, so f*** you"
- Great new prog tracks from Chimpan A, Polyphia, Dikajee and more in Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week
- “Mike Portnoy said, ‘This is the first thing we’re going to play in 10 years. Guess what it is.’ He started playing. I came in with the wrong song!”: John Petrucci hired ex drummer for his 2020 solo album, but didn't want him back in Dream Theater
August 27
- “Had there been a more sensitive or more efficient producer, it could have been much better”: The album that inspired prog’s most English movement was made in America in four days
- From rags to riches: How Dolly Parton's story embodied the American Dream. "If you really want to know who I am, my life is in my songs"
- "We had to push people to the side, whether gracefully or violently." The story behind Queens Of The Stone Age's masterpiece Songs For The Deaf
- “She spent so long in the water that she contracted mild hypothermia. She recovered and carried on”: When Kate Bush returned to the stage Before The Dawn, 35 years after her only tour
- "We wanted to be bright and funny." How Slipknot, Linkin Park and the Backstreet Boys helped turn a car salesman and a nurse into metal's biggest party-starters, Electric Callboy
August 26
- Tom Scholz reveals the secrets of Boston's masterful debut album. "I don't know what's wrong with me... I've spent six months making a recording of a song that I've thrown out"
- “A lot of it is first takes and demos. Because of what had happened to Neil we didn’t want to re-record – the songs felt too precious”: Rush fans had to wait 11 years for Vapor Trails to become the album it deserved to be
- “I watched it and I thought, ‘That’s similar.’ I watched it again and thought, ‘That’s really similar!’ She sent me a big apology… it was pretty cool”: Prog metal prodigy Plini’s laid-back reaction to a pop star stealing his solo
- After 50 years of pioneering heavy metal, Accept are in the mood to celebrate. "I wouldn't even have thought we would last five years, to be honest, let alone fifty"
August 25
- "I had an A&R guy at one label tell us that we were the next U2." The story behind Helmet's Meantime, the alt.rock masterpiece that even Beavis and Butthead thought was "cool"
- How Dolly Parton corralled a Who's Who of rock royalty to record her landmark Rockstar album: "There's more aggression in rock'n'roll – you've got to treat it with respect"
- "She goes, 'I love your beard' and starts to clean it!" What happened when country icon Dolly Parton met Judas Priest frontman and heavy metal legend, Rob Halford
- “It would be awesome to do it one night – the guys ask, ‘Where did he go?’ And I text them, ‘Couldn’t do it. Too nervous’”: Enslaved will be finished if Ivar Bjørnson stops getting stage fright
- “Jaw-droppingly immersive, to the point that I might have cried”: Why Arctangent is my favourite festival ever – and how the 2026 edition proved it all over again
- “I’m 16 and they were my heroes… They started to laugh because I was also playing the echo parts. I didn’t know they were a special effect”: Obsessive attention to detail was always Eddie Jobson’s superpower
August 24
- “The label boss said: ‘I don’t know how much longer I can fund records like this.’ We realised it was the last bastion of prog as we knew it”: What really changed in the year of punk? Rick Wakeman and JJ Burnel were there
- "We avoided being seen together at the airport." The messy story behind Nightwish's Bye Bye Beautiful - the most controversial song of their career
- "We were conscious of not wanting to f*** this up." Loathe are one of the most hyped young British metal bands of the 2020s. So why has it taken them six years to release new album A Stranger To You?
- “We don’t care about technology. Only the result matters”: Just before AI began to rise, Jean-Michel Jarre shared his vision for the future of music. Was he right?
- Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: August 24, 2026
August 23
- “The label said, ‘That’s never selling!’ and made us translate a song into English. I said, ‘You’ll get a villa in Spain out of this!’”: Clannad’s brushes with prog stars Peter Gabriel, Marillion, Nightwish, King Crimson, Genesis and more
- "It's not made for radio, it's not made for MTV, it's just made for rock and roll." Forget what critics and sales stats might tell you, Flick Of The Switch is the finest AC/DC album since Back In Black
- "We did a Ouija board ‘cause we wanted to speak to the Devil." From idolising Hendrix to touring with Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, this is Richie Faulkner's life story, told through the songs he loves the most
- "I very much connect to shadow." How three family tragedies and the surprise support of Alice Cooper saw Holy Wars make one of 2026's most emotional metal albums
- “He tore the whole thing to shreds and was very unkind, harsh and cruel … It was very upsetting to have someone you admire being so nasty about your work”: Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull’s War Child, and 1974
- Biff Byford reveals why he thinks Metallica have never covered a Saxon song – and it involves at incident at their second ever show: “They must have realised it was a bit stupid”
August 22
- “We had a good run and did some great things. That wasn’t one of them”: Abandoned songs, a broken foot and footballer-size egos destroyed a Yes album
- "It was dark and cool, really different. Beth Gibbons was one of my greatest vocal and musical inspirations." The story behind Portishead's Dummy, the album that change everything for Evanescence's Amy Lee
- Inside Kings Of Chaos, rock’s billion dollar supergroup: “I called Keith Richards about doing it. His manager said: ‘Keith has already got a band. They’re called the Rolling Stones’”
- “He was the real Voice Of Rock. Warm, rich, sonorous, resonant, deeply soulful”: James Dewar was the greatest rock vocalist you’ve probably never heard of
- Green Day: The A-Z of pop-punk's most important and influential band
- “We were on tour when my wife died. I flew back, arranged the funeral, did the wake, and continued with the tour. I ended up on the same psychoactive drugs as she did”: Tears For Fears’ Roland Orzabal and his songs of pain
- “The paganism was never a problem. All of us shared an interest in that side of things”: The story of Sabbat’s cult pagan-thrash classic Dreamweaver: Reflections Of Our Yesterdays
- "If I could start again, I'd pick up a saucepan rather than a guitar." CJ Wildheart on his new album, career choices, and his relationship with Ginger
- Ronnie Wood interview: The Stones' new album, a new Faces album, and Einstein. "We have to be honest about the sickness in the land. There's a lot of bad things going on"
August 21
- “These young kids put on Jurassic Shift. He said, ‘They don’t know we’re here. They don’t know what this is. But they’re loving it!’”: A truck of marijuana, a synth at Stonehenge, gigs with Gong – and Ozric Tentacles’ Ed Wynne
- Stone Temple Pilots, Velvet Revolver legend Scott Weiland on his 10 favourite Scott Weiland songs: "For me, it’s absolutely essential not to get stagnant creatively and to keep re-inventing things"
- A week in the life of the Metal Queen, Doro Pesch. "I had no friends, so reading helped me through some pretty tough times"
- Cool new prog from Lonely Robot, Eivør, Colin Moulding, Cult Of Luna and more in Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week
- "We are to Vikings what the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are to turtles." Eihwar have brought chaos to the European folk metal scene with their Viking war trance - could they be its next big thing?
- “The Rolling Stones and The Beatles paid for theirs. I see no reason why you shouldn’t pay for yours”: When Keith Emerson tried to blag a £55,000 synth for free
August 20
- "Our style has always been defined by the fact that we sound a little like Pink Floyd, Genesis and Marillion": Mystery and the making of One Among The Living
- "I'm a pussycat but I'm also a fan of mischief, misdirection and manipulation." Greg Dulli looks back on 40 years of laying bare man's desires, duplicity and deviance with The Afghan Whigs
- “He’d got rid of Lemmy and it was me next… That’s when we decided to get rid of the others instead”: The civil war that left Dave Brock as captain of Hawkwind
- How The Who overcame internal strife and a drummer behaving like a 'Saudi prince' to make their most poignant album. "Roger punched me once, and I’m sure I asked for it"
- How Led Zeppelin created the impossible-to-copy rhythmic swing of Black Dog. "I wrote it on a bit of paper on the train"
August 19
- Meet The Gnomes: Your new favourite Aussies digging garage rock, Merseybeat, 12-string jangle, fuzz pedals and moustache care
- “There’s nothing I like more than finding our back catalogue in the prog section alongside Yes and Genesis… we wanted to show off every aspect of what we could do as artists”: Call them what you like, but Chicago know they’re a prog band
- What happened when the Frankie Miller Band played San Quentin Prison. "The guys all signed a form to agree that if they were attacked, kidnapped or killed, the prison was not responsible"
- “Pink Floyd were difficult, but everyone else was really friendly. We closed the first half and Hendrix closed the second. You wouldn’t want to follow him onstage”: The Move could have been massive, but three things stopped them
- Frank Beard was the enigma at the heart of ZZ Top. "I never wanted to quit ZZ Top. And I never wanted to get fired"
- "To wear this scent, you must resist tradition, fight conformity, and disregard aromatic conventions." That time the Sex Pistols launched their own perfume to "feed your inner rebel"
August 18
- "I'm like, Oh my God, this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen! God is on my side." The story behind Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit video, by those who were there
- “That was incredibly disingenuous of Radiohead. But I have to acknowledge that perhaps it was very wise”: Steven Wilson and the war between prog and pop
- The best metal albums of 2026 (so far)
- How a kooky B-52s song about undersea life became a new-wave dance classic. "Even when we were singing about lobsters and volcanoes, we always sang like our lives depended on it"
- "I don't trust bands that wear shorts on stage." After twenty years in the punk rock trenches, The Menzingers have learned a thing or two
August 17
- “Atmospheric soundscapes building into metal workouts, the abrasiveness replaced with a desire to break boundaries”: How Tool, slowly but surely, went prog rock
- “I was 18 when I recorded it, so we didn’t know anything about writing, about recording, about singing”: Nightwish’s Floor Jansen on her worst album – and the prog metal deep cut which makes her cry
- “We’ve got a problem with the other band who registered the name and are trying to stop us from going to Germany. We’re trying to deal with that now”: How Nektar resurrected themselves with The Other Side
- Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: August 17, 2026
August 16
- “I sometimes dread the get-togethers. It’s either ‘Your dad owes me money’ or ‘He slept with my wife!’”: A prog icon’s daughter rebelled against music, then returned and made an album with a punk legend
- “At times I’ve taken the band something I consider to be a really heavy riff, and they’ve said, ‘That sounds like Billy Joel to us!’ I have to be careful how I present my ideas”: How misfit Jordan Rudess found his space in Dream Theater
August 15
- “I’ve been struggling to free my mind. I’ve learned so much. Finally it’s happening”: How Tarja Turunen brought a decade of development to bear on diverse album Frisson Noir
- “He said, ‘How about Slayer with special guests Slayer?’ We went, ‘Wow, that could be crazy’”: The bizarre story of Slayer vs Slayer, the 80s metal Battle Of The Bands with only one winner
- “I’m at work in the petrol station and I read that the album is at No. 23. I’d last heard it at a playback in George Martin’s studio”: Stackridge’s Monty Python-like experience with The Man In The Bowler Hat
- The gospel according to Peter Frampton: "Being chased and having your clothes ripped off by girls is all very exciting, but it gets old pretty quickly"
- The story behind Kiss's ultimate party anthem, Rock And Roll All Nite. "Every night we play it, it brings on a euphoria and a feeling of abandon in the crowd"
August 14
- Metal Hammer's tracks of the week: August 14 2026
- "It was the closest thing to anarchy I've ever seen. I didn't like it one bit." How Green Day's performance at the second festival of peace and love ended in chaos and violence
- “They brought glamour to a nation descending into gloom”: Roxy Music and the invention of sci-fi rock, just when it was needed most
- The day that Metallica trolled the world
- Hot new prog from Asia, Maiah Wynne, Jonas Bjerre and more in Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week
- “This is a new sound, you’re going to see some freaky-looking dudes going nuts onstage!’” How Korn launched nu metal – and got in legal hot water – with their incendiary debut single Blind
- Big Country Redux guitarist Bruce Watson picks the soundtrack of his life. "The Rolling Stones are the quietest band on stage I've heard in my life. You can actually talk over the top of them playing"
- Deep Purple are in their seventh decade. They've sold 120 million albums. And they still have things to say. "There was no joy, no happiness on stage. I don't blame any one person for it, but I think we know who we're talking about"
August 13
- “Robert Plant sat at the back. You could see his brain ticking away, thinking, ‘I should do this.’ That’s what I like”: What drives the prog veteran who’s been compared to God?
- "I wasn't feeling much of anything by the time it was released." Failure's brilliant third album Fantastic Planet should have made them superstars. Instead, it broke their hearts and split the band
- Louder Than Life has announced set times - get planning on how you'll be spending your time at America’s largest rock and metal festival and grab tickets while you still can
- “I don’t dislike the albums we made after that. Some of them are very good. But there was a wonderful innocence about that time”: Steve Howe’s favourite Yes songs are mainly from the 1970s
- “They got kicked out of their band because they wanted to shave their heads and call it Turd”: The story of Mr Bungle – how Mike Patton’s ex-high-school band made one of the strangest debut albums in heavy metal history
- "I believed we would not get back together. I thought Rush was a place Neil was not going to be able to go back to emotionally": How Rush survived the 1990s and early 2000s
August 12
- "The idea of the movie is to create the new American hero." The story behind Roadie, the chaotic 1980 cult movie featuring Meat Loaf, Blondie, Alice Cooper and Roy Orbison
- The explosive story of Ritchie Blackmore’s bitter exit from Deep Purple: “Ian Gillan has got a strange obnoxious side to him which is a side I don’t like”
- “John Lydon had had a few beers. He was being completely over the top, saying how much he loved Aqualung”: Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson quizzed by Yes, Genesis, ELP stars and others
- “I tried to write the heaviest thing I could think of”: From Enter Sandman to Nothing Else Matters, the stories behind every song on Metallica’s Black Album
- “It could be more amazing than U2’s triumph in Las Vegas. I think you could even blow that out the water”: Can Youth persuade David Gilmour to stage a live show with The Orb?
- “I lost the tips of two fingers in an accident when I was 17. Doctors told me that I had no hope of playing guitar again. I refused to accept that”: The life and times of Tony Iommi, metal’s indestructible dark lord
August 11
- “It was never funny or clever. I was uncomfortable recording it”: Barclay James Harvest, The Moody Blues and one of prog rock’s few diss tracks
- “I don’t think the underground or extreme metal scene will ever dig us. It’s elitist”: How Trivium defied the gatekeepers and split the critics with The Crusade
- Sonja Kristina looks back over half a century of Curved Air. "I was wearing my green corduroy hippie outfit and Polaroid glasses. They played such stunningly beautiful music"
- “The peak had passed. But some albums kept the flame alive”: What did the 80s ever do for prog?
- The story of the anthem that broke Free in America - then broke up the band. "I'll never forget Koss's reaction. He slumped like he'd been hit in the stomach"
- "I wanted to get Jeff Beck in the band. Then I wanted to get Keith Moon. I went for the big time." George Thorogood is at peace with not being Bob Seger or Steve Miller
August 10
- Oasis: The story of a very British phenomenon in 12 songs
- “It could have been a huge record, but they buried it… It was his time but the boat just sailed away”: Despite his label's disinterest, Roy Harper’s Stormcock refused to die
- “I said, ‘I quit!’ He said, ‘Take six months off, then I’ll call and find out if you’ve still left.’ When he called I couldn’t remember what we’d been arguing about”: Steve Hogarth, Marillion and several false starts
- Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: August 10, 2026
- How Pete Townshend turned youthful disgust into The Who's biggest hit. "I didn't like being confronted with money and the class system and power"
August 9
- "This song is not a rebel song." The story behind U2's emotional, controversial, and often misunderstood, protest anthem Sunday Bloody Sunday
- “They’d say, ‘I guess you’ll be retiring? There won’t be any more tours?’ I’d write it down and bite my lip”: The Anchoress had a baby, not a lobotomy, and wrote a satirical song about it
- Dimmu Borgir went from arming themselves against potential murderers to the biggest band in black metal. "We heard people were starting to wear knives and weapons, so we did the same."
- “We were all pushing each other. We all had ideas as to where it should go. It was an intense time”: The Pineapple Thief asked how the world went off-script with It Leads To This
- In 1988, Blue Oyster Cult made the weirdest album of a very weird career and nearly sank the band: “I know that the aliens lived underwater”
- How Gregg Allman turned late-night despair into the classic Whipping Post. "I didn't know exactly what I was doing. I just did it."
August 8
- “It was early days for the band. We’d gone out on a limb… it was by no means certain that the response would be positive”: Genesis’ early fears for Foxtrot
- “We’d order eight pitchers of margaritas and by the time the gig started we were out of our heads and barely able to finish the show”: How a group of rock’n’roll outcasts made the first great debut album of the 1990s
- “People might be surprised, but I was heavily inspired by progressive music. Roxy Music influenced Celtic Frost”: Extreme metal pioneer Tom G Warrior’s prog roots
- The mad genius of The Beatles’ Revolver, the album that changed the 1960s: “Paul turned up in his pyjamas, carpet slippers, and a jacket over his pyjama top.”
- “We had been on the road pretty heavily and we were burned”: How Bad Company karate chopped their way through burnout to make their great ‘lost’ album
- From Avenged Sevenfold to Neurosis and Stray From The Path, why more and more metal bands are surprise-releasing albums: “At what point do people critique success on sales rather than how big your balls are?”
- Sevendust's 30-Year odyssey: Success, near-bankruptcy and new purpose: "It's been tough. We survived what many people wouldn't have survived."
- “Bands like ELP, Yes and Genesis were seen as over-the-top, showing-off kinds of performers. And to some extent I felt that, too”: Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson decided to lampoon prog and ended up making “the mother of all concept albums”
August 7
- “There’s going to be a feeling of loss but a huge sense of relief… I’ve had my time with them. I’m finding new friends now and they can move on”: When David Gilmour auctioned 123 of his guitars for charity
- “Prog taught me to do whatever the hell you want – go in any direction you want”: 10 times Iron Maiden went shamelessly all-out prog
- "You could very easily die in there." Slaughter To Prevail, bare-knuckle boxing and brain injuries: Inside the bloodiest, most brutal metal gig ever.
- Alex Lifeson on the battle behind Rush's most divisive song, Subdivisions. "I was sitting there thinking, I can't hear guitar"
- "If AOR fans want a long-lost cult-classic, Night Of The Crime most certainly fits the bill." The story of Icon's stunning melodic metal masterpiece
August 6
- "The Beatles are the gods of rock!" How four Japanese schoolboys fell in love with The Beatles 50 years ago and fulfilled a dream by visiting the UK for their own magical mystery tour
- The story of the day Bono and Jimmy Buffett went out for chicken and were almost killed by Jamaican police. "It was absolutely terrifying, and I honestly thought we were all going to die"
- “I asked Frank Zappa, ‘Are you sure I can do this?’ Like a good father he kicked me out of the nest”: Beat’s new boy Terry Bozzio on his transition from American to British prog
- “Drugs at our age? You don’t have to take them forever. Once you’ve opened the doors of perception you can see what’s going on; you’ve got the ideas”: Dave Brock on Hawkwind’s late-period purple patch
- Excide don't want to be Turnstile or Knocked Loose. They want to create something new: "Post-hardcore just meant trying new and different things."
- Guitar virtuoso Eric Johnson picks the songs that soundtrack his life: "That record was over my head. I wasn't even sure if I liked it. But the more I listened, the more I realised how great it was"
- How Photograph transformed Def Leppard into global pop-metal megastars: "I was this geeky twat who liked music and wasn't living in the real world. All I ever wanted was to be a star."
August 5
- “We got lost in the dark. My wife said, ‘This is a turnaround situation.’ Rather than helping with the predicament I sang, ‘Turnaround situation lately,’ and there it was!”: Yes and the endless inspiration that led to Aurora
- Cardio, corpse paint and Carolina Reapers: Venom frontman Cronos opens up about his brilliantly bizarre double life
- “Surely it’s the greatest psychedelic rock song ever recorded… It makes the whole God thing seem plausible!” Kavus Torabi’s Guide To Cardiacs
August 4
- Addiction, Doris, Riots and Tub Tarts: An A-Z Of Metallica
- “We were all over radio and MTV with an eight-minute song. That hadn’t happened since the days of Yes and ELP”: Dream Theater, Voivod, Watchtower and the explosion of prog metal
- “I was struggling at home and struggling on tour. I’ve had a real problem with alcohol again”: Inspired by a Neil Peart quote, Napalm Death’s Shane Embury embraced his prog tendencies to search his soul
August 3
- Superstar magician Penn Jillette has a wild secret rock 'n' roll past that no-one ever talks about, and the "bloody scars" to prove it
- "They draw a crowd size which would have once been reserved for Iron Maiden or Metallica." Burning keyboardists, flying tanks and free suncream - inside Wacken Open Air 2026
- Twelve incredible live performances just uploaded to the internet, including The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Thin Lizzy, King Crimson, Tom Waits and more
- Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: August 3, 2026
- "There was a guy shooting at us from his balcony. It turned out he’d been sniffing glue." The story of the UK's only top-10 nu metal hit
- “He confounded his fans and his record label. Most of his band jumped ship after it”: When Arthur Lee steered Love into uncharted waters
August 2
- “He and I really came to an impasse. We were both unhappy and we both kind of quit”: Mike Portnoy and Neal Morse had a furious spat that spawned their greatest record
- “The others realised they couldn’t stop me because it was too close to the show… I got away with it, although it was a close-run thing”: How Peter Gabriel developed his Genesis frontman act
- "They called me the woman that was sent by Satan to destroy them." Christian cults, boat orgies and terrorist accusations: Hawxx are screaming for liberation
- "He was centre-half and you didn't go near the man. He was dangerous!" How AC/DC’s Brian Johnson ended up playing on the same football team as Chuck Norris
- "I probably should've put them through hell." Tarja reflects on her public dismissal from Nightwish in 2005
August 1
- “Joe stayed up for three days drinking bottle after bottle of brandy, berating everyone around him for their weaknesses, and just really losing it”: Bust-ups, busking and the last days of The Clash
- “In the wake of all the frustration and banging our head against, it felt like everything aligned perfectly. I don’t think a lot of people get that moment in their life”: The two millennial classics that turned Jimmy Eat World into low-key emo royalty
- “It really seriously disturbed me, singing my songs about peace and love and there’s fighting in front of me. But it was very good for the album”: Steve Hillage’s career in and out of psych prog icons Gong
- "One of the things that Bruce Dickinson and Paul Di’Anno didn’t have was, they’d not seen Iron Maiden as a fan." Blaze Bayley on heart attacks, being banned by the church and his legacy with 'metal's greatest band'
- “Some bands you see and you just know. The Beatles were one. The Stones were one. AC/DC were one”: This is what Lemmy really thought of AC/DC and their legendary singer Bon Scott
- "They liked the Butthole Surfers, they liked Iggy Pop, they liked us… we were keeping good company." How Beavis and Butt-head's approval of Thunder Kiss '65 turned White Zombie into a million-selling band
- “If he felt the bass parts while he was singing, it could only be a matter of time before it crept down from his head into his fingers”: How Boz Burrell saved King Crimson when Robert Fripp had lost hope
- “I had a creepy feeling things were going against us”: The chilling prophecy and unthinkable tragedy that overshadows one of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s greatest albums